The dark-eyed junco, Junco hyemalis, is a common American bird, related to the bunting, but regarded as one of the American sparrows, even though it has a bill like a finch. The interest in the species is often with its complex song, which is now one of the classics. He is no nightingale, but the social learning that adjusts birdsong to different bird cultures tends to be neglected by the male junco, preferring lots of innovation! The paper can be found in the Royal Society Open Science journal Shared songs are of lower performance in the dark-eyed junco. The honours go to Goncalo C. Cardoso and Jonathan W. Atwell of Universidade do Porto, Portugal and Indiana University, US.

Between 25 and 45% of males in this study shared songs between at least 2 individuals. As the authors expected, the individual singing was of high quality in terms of specially selected metrics such as vocal deviation (a mix of syllable rate and frequency bandwidth.) So the shared songs were performed at a lower level than those of individual songsters. Invention and improvisation raised the level apparently when males were alone, trying somehow to improve upon the musicality they have learned.

Cultural events are not associated with songbirds, but social learning builds their repertoires when they don't simply sing their heart out, based on their innate ability. The flexibility of the junco has been investigated thoroughly many times. Inventive and improvised novelty is the means by which these little guys entertain both their females and ourselves! The unshared songs of the most inventive birds have the most novel traits within their notes and trills. It is these songs too that the male uses when he is motivated the most - presumably during a mating display or when counter-singing. That leaves us thinking that the low quality, shared song is likely to be the only one used for social learning. In this paper, the juncos were found to ignore the high performance songs of others in many cases The closeness of a neighbouring male may determine whether his song is learnt or not, or perhaps a song needs to be sung by more than one individual. Wherever we investigate, more questions crop up! The diversity of syllables in their continuous songs sets the juncos apart, creating a cultural pool that is ever-changing. This is totally different to the situation in many songbirds, (eg. swamp sparrows,Melospiza georgiana) who largely learn the local culture. (Perhaps human song-writers can be fitted into this cultural pattern too.)

To show the research on songbirds would fill encyclopaedias. As one of our many examples, the gorgeous Gouldian finch from Australia features his song in this story, where, like the swamp sparrows, the mate is choosing her favourite song, if not the singer!

Sponsors

Recent News

What does that blue butterfly do when you are not watching. We still have to discover exactly how the Eurasian large blue exploits Myrmica ants, but many of its relatives are either cuckoos (eg. (Phengaris alcon), or outright predators like the AustralasianLiphyra brassolis larvae ,eating the whole brood of the green ants they live with. How did such diverse habits evolve? Well, start reading here.

For several years, excitement has been building over the Atlantic presence of Manta birostris and Manta cf birostris/ this is the classification system trying to tell us of a potential new species that is related to genus Manta. Little progress has been made on this W. Atlantic species of oceanic manta, but it cant be long before we can confirm new knowledge of parenting and juvenile growth in at least the main species, which seems to live alongside the potential new manta.

Ocean plastic pollution could triple in a decade without action by the ocean economy. TOMRA CEO Stefan Ranstrand responds to the UK Governments Foresight Future of the Sea report and explains how container deposit schemes and sensor-based recycling sorting could provide a solution.

Sponsored Links

Recent Blog Posts

The future is certainly renewable, but are we too late to prevent future centuries problems of global warming- and the rest! Here are some current US solutions to waste and warming for you to enjoy---there are some ads in this piece but weve allowed them for one blog only.

When dolphins are 'rescued' in various countries, the car given seems to be ill-considered. We are simply looking at the success rate which is reported to be low, in most places. They could even end up in commercial aquarium shows, but they certainly rarely make it back to the sea.